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Dream gardens

What does it mean to make a garden? What longings do gardens fulfil; what dreams do they satisfy? These are the question at the heart of a new gardening show, Dream Gardens, launching on ABC TV this week. Eschewing how-to tips on growing plants (done so well by ABC’s other garden offering, Gardening Australia), this is a show that looks instead at what we want from gardens and how clever garden design can deliver it.

Michael in a publicity shot from episode one of Dream Gardens

The host is the ebullient Michael McCoy, a garden designer and writer (and, full disclosure, my friend.) McCoy has a degree in botany, long experience as a hands-on gardener and sought-after garden designer, and a passionate curiosity about what makes good garden design work. He’s empathetic, enthusiastic and opinionated – the perfect partner to lead viewers around these eight gardens-in-the-making.

McCoy insists that the ‘dream’ in Dream Gardens is verb not adjective. This is not about ‘ideal’ gardens but about the vision that gives gardens a unique personality. “A garden is dream-driven from Minute One,” says McCoy. “The way gardening is often presented in the media is as a problem-solving exercise, as if the challenge was only to conquer pests and diseases, whereas the quality of a garden is a function of the quality of the dream behind it. So we are definitely about the verb – come dream gardens with me!”

Dustbowl to salad bowl? That’s the dream here in Toowoomba, in episode 1 of Dream Gardens.

The dreams featured in the eight-part series include the transformation of a dustbowl paddock into a self-sufficient kitchen garden; a garden to banish the memories of the Black Saturday fires of 2009; a happy ending to a construction nightmare that saw the desire for a pool become a $200,000 hole in the ground; and a longed for resort-style garden in a longed-for location.

Each story starts with the vision and follows its interpretation and creation by some of Australia’s leading garden-making professionals, including Sydney’s Michael Bates, Christopher Owen and Matt Leacy. Side trips to some of Australia’s great gardens, such as Paul Bangay’s Stonefields and Fiona Brockoff’s ground-breaking seaside garden Karkalla, allow McCoy to explore relevant design principles and show off some really beautiful garden photography.

McCoy says the beauty of the show is that it reminds us “how incredibly enriching a garden is and how expressive it is of the character of its owners. Gardens are as diverse as the people who make them and we see how wonderful it its when the life and personality we are used to seeing expressed in our houses leaks through the walls into the surrounds: we see the kind of nurturing a great garden provides and the longings it satisfies.”

We’ve been waiting a long time to see the quality and diversity of Australian garden design explored on television. I won’t be missing a minute.

Dream Gardens screens on Thursdays from February 9 at 8pm on ABC TV and iview.

It’s time to

Visit cool gardens
Lynn McGough started her mail-order rare plant nursery, Lynn’s Rare Plants, so that she could grow what she wanted in her garden. See the results when the garden, Foggy Dew, opens for its first summer viewing, this weekend, February 4 and 5 and on March 4 and 5. 10am-4pm, 20 Northcote Road, Leura, entry $8.

Deadhead aggies
Cut and compost finished flowering stems of agapanthus to prevent seeds falling into the clump or spreading elsewhere.

Order bulbs
The spring bulb catalogues are out. Make a plan.

Manage trees
Judy Fakes has spent close to 10 years arbitrating disputes between neighbours about trees. In an illustrated talk for the Australian Garden History society she’ll outline how the Trees act works to protect both trees and neighbourly relations. Wednesday February 15, Annie Wyatt Room, National Trust Centre, Observatory Hill, drinks 6pm, talk 7-8.30pm. Members $20, guests $30, bookings Jeanne@Villani.com.